


Lights

by kalirush



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 1, Cooking, F/M, Fluff, Hanukkah, Hobbits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-13
Updated: 2019-03-13
Packaged: 2019-11-16 11:34:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18093524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kalirush/pseuds/kalirush
Summary: Rose gets her family ready for a Hanukkah dinner.





	Lights

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Morvidra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morvidra/gifts).



> This takes place in 1446 (by Shire reckoning). There is a list of the children and their ages for reference in the endnotes.

Rose took a deep breath. “Elanor!” she called. A blonde head popped through the nearest doorway.

“Yes, mum?” Elanor answered. 

“Set the older boys onto peeling potatoes and parsnips, would you? We need to get the parsnips roasting and the potatoes grating if we’re going to have dinner at any kind of time.” Rose manhandled the oven door open, poking at the roast with a mighty fork. “And have little Rosie fetch the applesauce and the jam and the pickles out of the larder. And then get back here! I’ll need another set of hands on this brisket, sooner than later.” 

“Muuuum!” Ham poked his head around Elanor, who gave him a good-natured shove and went off in search of Frodo and Merry and Pippin. Ham was getting to the age when he was all arms and legs and big brown eyes, and he was making them as big as possible in Rose’s direction. “Goldie and Daisy and Prim aren’t helping like they ought!”

Rose made an exasperated noise. “Girls!” she shouted. “In here, now!”

Three faces appeared around Ham. “Ham is acting like he’s the boss of us!” complained Goldie. “And he’s two years younger; I should be in charge!”

“I don’t want to do the sweeping,” Daisy put in, sullenly. “The dust gets in my hair.”

“Ham says I have to set the table, but I can’t reach the dishes!” Prim added. 

Rose fixed her middle children with a gimlet eye. “Ham, get all the dishes down, and then go help your brothers with the peeling. Prim, set the table, and mind you don’t break anything. Daisy, see to dusting the parlor, and Goldie, get the dining room swept out. And the next time I hear any of the four of you arguing on a holiday when we’ve all more work to do than we can manage, I’m not going to be so lenient! Bilbo!”

Bilbo appeared in between Daisy and Goldie, his hair everywhere. “Yes, mummy?” he asked. 

Rose pulled her bread dough off the cabinet and started flouring the counter. “Do you know where the chanukiah is?”

“Yes, mummy!” he said. 

“Good. Go get the chanukiah and the dreidels and the candles, and let Ruby and Robin pick out what color candles go in, and get it put up in the front window. Do you have Tommy?”

“No, Tommy’s with Daddy, out to the shops.”

Picking up the gelt they’d ordered, of course, and the wine, and probably some errant Tooks besides. Rose wiped sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. “Oh, good. Now off you run; I’ve got bread to shape.”

She divided her dough in half, and then in halves again, pulling the lumps out into strands and braiding them neatly together. Before she was done, she had to break up a fight between Bilbo and Ruby and Rob about which color candles should go where in the chanukiah. Then, she sent Frodo to find the box graters and set the older boys- plus Ham, since he couldn’t work nicely with his sisters today- to work on the potatoes and onions. In the midst of that, Elanor helped her pull the roast out of the oven to sit a while. Then she sent Rosie and Elanor to see that the front room and the dining room were as they should be, and then she sent the middle girls to make sure the guest bedrooms were ready. Then, Rosie helped her slice up some sprouts, and then- _then-_ the door flew open and her Sam lumbered in, covered all over in packages and overcoats and a lumpy yellow bobble hat that Prim had knit two years ago and Tommy clinging cheerily to his back.

“Rosie my girl!” he said, once he’d set everything down, sent Tommy off into Elanor’s care, and caught her around the waist. “I hope you don’t mind- I ran into some cousins in town and invited them down.”

Rose smiled. “I’d’ve been sorry to have made up the guest bedrooms for nothing if you hadn’t,” she said. He grinned and kissed her, soft and sweet and smelling like fir. “Frodo is heating up the oil for you,” she told him. The rest of the meal was hers, but Sam always fried the latkes himself, him and the boys.

“I’d best get on with it, then,” he said, reaching for an apron. He stopped, threaded his fingers into the back of her hair, and kissed her again. “Oh, Rosie,” he said. “I never saw a queen so lovely as you, not in any far-off land.” He smiled shyly at her.

“Quite right,” she said, and smiled back. She kissed him once more, right on his nose “Now off you go, or we’ll never get dinner, and wouldn’t that be a house full of sad hobbits?”

“Couldn’t have that!” he said, and off he went, tying his apron as he went.

[](https://66.media.tumblr.com/8a64dfd99a001ac8f11f27de17a067a8/tumblr_ovwypnXZ3e1snkdsho1_1280.jpg)

**Author's Note:**

> Elanor: 25  
> Frodo: 23  
> Rose: 21  
> Merry: 19  
> Pippin: 17  
> Goldilocks: 15  
> Hamfast: 14  
> Daisy: 13  
> Primrose: 11  
> Bilbo: 10  
> Ruby: 8  
> Robin: 6  
> Tom: 4


End file.
